Maximizing Table Power/Minimizing Code

In just a few chapters, you're going to read about an aspect of cascading dtyle sheets known as absolute positioning. Using this feature within XHTML, you can separate style and layout from the content of an XHTML document. The advantage of positioning in this way is that it is, in fact, as absolute as positioning any element on a Web page can get.

As you already are aware, however, what works in the strict interpretation of XHTML is not necessarily what works in the real world. Or at least, not yet. And, because tables and frames have a longer history than CSS, it's a given that designers will naturally lean toward what works and what is interoperable across platforms and browsers.